


the worst birthday party the moon ever saw

by RaineyDay



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [22]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Allergies, Gen, Team as Family, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29762037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaineyDay/pseuds/RaineyDay
Summary: Febuwhump alternate prompt: allergiesLucretia is a very thorough woman, but there's a few little things she can forget to mention, in journals or otherwise. A deathly allergy is probably one of the worst things she could forget to mention, but at least she's consistent about it!
Relationships: Magnus Burnsides & The Director | Lucretia, The Director | Lucretia & Merle Highchurch, The Director | Lucretia & Taako
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2138502
Comments: 1
Kudos: 11





	the worst birthday party the moon ever saw

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this post: https://why-is-it-always-autumn.tumblr.com/post/178230167284/one-of-my-favorite-categories-of-taz-headcanon

Avi's birthday party was going well. He'd been excited to have them all come celebrate with him, and it was nice to take a break from the responsibilities involved with saving the world.

He'd invited various friends from around the Bureau, including Tres Horny Boys, and they'd been eager to come as well. Avi was a cool dude, and the party was sure to be fun.

Killian, Carey, and NO-3113 had been invited too, along with Johann and Davenport, and the Director, and they had mostly stuck around with that group, rather than wading into the waters of interacting with strangers. They had enough friends already, thank you.

Taako had thought about cooking something to bring, but hadn't quite gotten up the nerve in time to do anything, and therefore, he was trying not to say anything to critique the food that was there. It would only make people question why he hadn't brought something himself if he had such a problem with it, and that was a question that he was not in the mood to get into.

But it wasn't too bad. It was fun and chill- right up until the moment, the Director started to have trouble breathing.

Taako's mind went into panic mode immediately at the sight. Something was wrong- something was hurting Lucretia- the Director- she was in danger, and that could not stand. She wasn't breathing.

"Merle!" he shouted, scanning the crowd for the dwarf, who appeared quickly, frowning at the alarm in Taako's voice.

"Yeah?" he asked.

Taako shoved Merle toward the Director, half aware that other people were starting to notice the Director throwing her hands to her throat in alarm, trying to breathe and wheezing with the effort.

All he could think about was being surrounded by dying strangers, watching them gasp for breath, in pain and afraid, unable to do anything to stop the horror show. He couldn't bear the thought of watching someone die like that again, especially not someone that he actually knew and liked.

Taako tried to remember what she'd been eating earlier, but he hadn't really been paying that much attention. Hadn't thought that he needed to. He'd seen her eating the cookies, he was sure- she had a bit of a sweet tooth, he'd realized- but he couldn't remember if there had been anything else.

He grabbed Avi as the guy was rushing over to see what the commotion was.

"Who made the food?" Taako demanded.

"Wha- uh, I made most of it?" Avi explained.

"What was in the cookies?" Taako asked, figuring that it was the best place to start. A cleric was in a much better position to heal somebody if they knew what was causing the problem in the first place.

"I can get the recipe? They were some chocolate hazelnut cookie things- I-" Avi said, and Taako felt a small part of him relax, even as another part tensed.

That explained that then.

"She's allergic to hazelnuts!" Taako shouted, giving Avi a withering glare. "Don't you know that?"

"Fuck. No, I had no idea," Avi said, face going guilt stricken, and Taako turned the glare down a notch or two at how obviously distressed Avi was. "Uh, wait, how do you-"

Taako didn't wait to answer the question, because it didn't matter. What mattered was telling Merle what was going on so that he could fix it. He turned away from Avi and ran to Lucretia and Merle.

Lucretia was still conscious, good, but her eyes were panicky and bloodshot.

"There were hazelnuts in the cookies," Taako explained, and Merle cursed lightly under his breath.

"Hey, Luce? You got a Fantasy Epipen handy?" Merle asked.

Lucretia nodded quickly, reaching for the leather pouch at her side, but her hands were weak from the lack of oxygen.

Taako moved to grab it instead, reaching inside- she always kept it in the back pocket, so it should be- there!

He grabbed it and handed it off to Merle, because he always found the process of using one of those things to be unpleasant. Instead, he moved the thickest part of her robes away from her thigh, so that Merle could actually get the needle into her.

Probably it should have felt awkward to partially undress his boss in a room of coworkers, but it didn't really register at the moment, given that he needed to do it to keep her alive and everything. Who gave a shit about invading personal space when it was that or dying?

Merle prepared the Fantasy Epipen and slammed it into Lucretia's leg.

When Taako heard her breathing start to ease, his own did as well.

"Thank you, Merle," Lucretia managed, after taking a few long moments to recover her breath. Her voice was scratchy, but she was speaking and she was okay.

"No problem," Merle said, smiling broadly at her. "You oughta be more careful with these things. Don't want another- uh," he trailed off, face scrunched up as he tried to find his train of thought again.

"Yes, of course," the Director responded without needing Merle to finish his sentence. She looked around at the crowd that had gathered around her. "I apologize for the commotion. For future reference, I am allergic to hazelnuts; please do not feed me any."

There were murmurs of agreement all around, worried eyes still watching her as she moved to sit up properly, straightening her robes from the disheveled state they'd ended up in.

"I should head to the healers' wing," Lucretia said, ruefully, clear disappointment in her expression.

"Yes, you should," Merle said firmly.

"We'll walk you!" Magnus offered, cheerily, voice betraying just a hint of his concern.

"I would appreciate that, thank you, Magnus," she responded, and when she stood up, Taako noticed that her legs were a little shaky.

Ignoring the unsteady feeling in his own limbs, Taako reached out and wrapped an arm around Lucretia's shoulders to help her, and Magnus stood at her other side, one hand on her back, ready to catch her if anything went wrong.

Taako moved for the door slowly but steadily, a part of his mind still buzzing with anxiety. It had just been an allergic reaction. She was going to be fine. The clerics would know how to help.

Merle came along too, even though he couldn't really offer any more help than he'd already given in the process of getting her there, and Taako knew that he was worried too.

There was an odd, almost fragile expression on Lucretia's face as they walked with her. Taako didn't think about it too hard. It was frightening to almost die, especially when you hadn't been expecting danger at all. Of course, she wasn't feeling quite herself at the moment.

They got her to the healers and started to explain what had happened. The memory was fragmentary, in the way that adrenaline-fueled moments always tended to be. Taako remembered certain moment extremely clearly- the expression on the Director's face when she'd started having trouble breathing, Avi's voice explaining that the cookies had hazelnuts, the slam of the Fantasy Epipen into her leg- and the rest was fading into a blur of panicked determination.

It didn't matter though, because they explained what happened to the healers clearly enough. They planned to keep her under observation for a little while, to make sure that there were no side affects or anything, and Taako snickered at Lucretia's grumpy expression upon hearing that.

Magnus volunteered to hang out with her for a little bit, so that she wouldn't be so bored, so Taako didn't feel bad about leaving.

He was still coming down off of the adrenaline high, and he felt that post-crisis anxiety starting to kick in, and he didn't need to deal with that with anybody around, thanks.

He wanted to bake something very badly, because he had always liked to bake to destress. There was something that was comforting about it in a way that he'd enjoyed since childhood. And baking something for somebody was a great way to cheer them up without having to acknowledge emotions too.

But he also knew that there was no way he could handle baking today- not after that scene. At least, he wouldn't be able to handle baking anything that other people might eat.

He still found himself standing in the middle of the kitchen in their suite, unwilling to make anything and unwilling to leave.

He kept the Umbra Staff in his hands as he poked through the cupboards, because it was a comfort. It occurred to him that he could make hot chocolate with the ingredients that he had on hand.

Maybe he could handle that. Wasn't so complicated as a full meal, and it didn't even involve any real cooking, honestly. Anybody could do it, practically.

And if he got too anxious after making it, he could always toss it down the drain a lot easier than he could with food.

He made the hot chocolate with milk instead of water- he got the feeling that Lucretia would like it that way, as well she should, it was the superior form of hot chocolate- and he filled four mugs with it when he was finished.

He wrinkled his nose as he realized that he had no way to transport all four cups to the healers wing, and called up Merle on his stone to conscript the dwarf into being his extra hands.

Merle was near by and eagerly helped Taako with the mugs, sipping at his own a few times on the way, despite Taako telling him that he was going to burn his mouth, and the subsequent mouth burning that happened every time he did so.

Taako knocked on Lucretia's door with his elbow, and Magnus opened it, perking his head to the side like a curious dog when Taako shoved his way in with the mugs.

"Sorry-Shit-Sucks Hot Chocolate," Taako announced as he entered, and he saw Lucretia's eyes soften until he thought she might be about to cry. Well, he was glad she appreciated it, but it wasn't that big a deal. He shoved a mug into her hands before things could get too sappy. "Used to make it all the time with my aunt."

He hadn't intended to admit that. For some reason, these people had a tendency to make him want to be open more than he ever had been before. He supposed that it was okay as long as they didn't make a big fuss about it.

"Thank you, Taako," Lucretia said, softly, taking a tentative sip at her mug.

The smile that spread across her face as she drank the hot chocolate was so happy that Taako instinctively grinned back, feeling happy and comfortable. Magnus and Merle seemed to like it too, drinking it eagerly and offering compliments on it.

He barely even noticed the hum of anxiety at the back of his mind that told him that he shouldn't cook for other people. How could something that made the people he liked this happy be dangerous?

The anxiety would come back later. Lucretia still needed to stick around here to recover for a while longer. But for the moment, he felt safe and proud of himself, knowing that he loved these people and they loved him too.


End file.
